Ramblings: 10/01/2005

Ramblings

Saturday, October 15, 2005

I've been neglecting to talk about Claire lately... I keep thinking I need to journal about all the phrases she's saying these days, but this list goes on and on! She's almost 20 1/2 months. At Gymboree the other day she said "tummy bubbles" so clearly that many of the mom's were very impressed. One woman even said "two words together, wow!" I thought...this morning she was saying "zippadeedoodah" as clear as could be too, but I didn't say anything. I'm finding girls to be more verbal than boys of the same age, but Claire is way more verbal than girls her own age too... It's fun to hear her starting to form sentences. Last week she woke up and saw a cracker and pointed saying "cracker over there see." I've been writing her name on this Fisher Price magnetic draw and erase board and so I'll overhear her saying "C-I-A-I, Claire" to herself. This morning she put her stuffed bumble bee on the arm of the couch, then pushed it down and then retrieved it and repeated the process saying "fall down, again, okay." How fun to observe her playing on her own and narrating her every move!

What will our boy be like???

¶ 2:43 PM 0 comments

Last week on Oprah, Uma Thurman was the guest and the topic of working vs. stay-at-home moms came up. I have been stewing over a comment a "working" mother said to the camera. She said "not everyone has the luxury of staying at home" and this phrase has been bothering me all week. Maybe it was how she said it, her tone of voice...but my thought was..."What's so luxurious about staying at home?" At the end of the segment they interviewed a "stay-at-home" mom and she said when her friends complain about not being able to be at home she replies that sometimes she wishes she could "go to work." This comment I could relate to because it's true that when you stay home you're always at work. Being home with your child means you create more housework for yourself: more dishes, more crumbs on the kitchen floor and rug, more food preparation, more dust from just being in your own home all day, and I'm sure the list could go on...

So staying at home means you're working, you're just not having the luxury of getting out of the house and in a way escaping from the challenges of being with your own child/ren.

Now I do have a home-based business. No, it doesn't provide me health benefits or anywhere near the salary I had as a full-time teacher (at least not yet), but it still is work. However, even if I didn't have my Shaklee business I'd still consider myself a "working" mom and not a woman living in luxury as the Oprah working mom suggested. It interesting how people interpret their own situations differently.

Most of the time I think Oprah does shows about how great stay-at-home moms are and how it's "the hardest job in the world," but Uma Thurman, a working mom, was showing the other side to some degree. I do agree with Oprah's conclusion that at least we, as women, now have the choice to stay home or go to a job whereas before it was automatically assumed we'd stay home. Women need to feel comfortable with whatever choice they make and not try to say one place/role is better than another. However, I think part of human nature means we'll never be totally satisfied with our choices, but hopefully we'll be grateful for choices in general.

¶ 2:19 PM 2 comments

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Yesterday we received some great news! Our house in Salem (History: Brian bought the house a couple months before we met, then he moved to Portland shortly thereafter, so he rented it out for a year, then we lived there a few months after we were married and commuted to Portland. Needless to say we didn't like the 110 mile round-trip commute five days a week, we tried to sell it on our own, then found a property management company called SB Properties who found tenant-buyers for the house and took care of repairs, collecting rent and all the other stuff that's not so fun to do as a landlord) sold!!! So we're relieved we don't have to think about that house anymore.

To celebrate, we bought an over-the-stove microwave! For my birthday present, Brian spent a few hours installing it! I love it! Now I have more counter space!!!

Claire & Brian are sleeping and I'm going to sneak off to church...

¶ 10:34 AM 0 comments

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